


Jump

by brit



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Pre-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-13
Updated: 2014-08-13
Packaged: 2018-02-12 23:44:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2128911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brit/pseuds/brit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Steve had jumped after Bucky?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jump

 

Steve didn’t think twice before jumping. All he saw was his best friend, his entire life, falling, and all he thought was _‘I can save him.’_ So he tried. Bucky’s screams echoed in the mountains as Steve hurtled toward him. The cold pierced his skin like thousands of tiny needles, but that wasn’t anything new to him. So he tried to propel himself faster and farther. It took a lot longer to fall than he thought it would. He wondered if Bucky thought the same thing. 

He hit the ground with such impact that he thought he might die. His entire body slammed into the ground at once and as soon as it did it was like being run over by a truck. The breath was knocked out of him faster than the train that was speeding away with the rest of the commandos and Hydra. But he pulled himself up and staggered a little before finding his balance. He started screaming Bucky’s name. Desperately he shouted and shouted like a kid who lost his puppy. There was no way Bucky survived the fall. Bucky wasn’t a superhuman. But Steve kept telling himself that Bucky was fine. He was going to be just fine when he found him. He would look up at Steve and say with his best smile _‘what took you so long?’_ and Steve would shake his head but smile the smile only Bucky could bring out in him. 

Since the train was going so fast, the three seconds it took Steve to jump already took him a few hundred feet ahead of Bucky. He didn’t care that he couldn’t feel his face anymore or that his legs were numb or that he was screaming so much that Bucky’s name started to blur into the winter winds. He kept going. Find Bucky was his only mission now. No one would understand, he knew that, but he didn’t need anyone to understand. He just needed to find Bucky. Bucky deserved to be found. 

* * *

“Bucky!” He heard his name being called in the distance. He opened his eyes but all he could see was white. He also couldn’t feel much. He honestly thought he was dead. But he could hear his name being called. At first he thought it might be God calling to him, but then he heard the voice again and it was much better than God. It was Steve. Steve, his Stevie, was coming to get him. “Bucky!” he heard it again, but it was getting farther and farther away. He was going the wrong way. 

Bucky tried so desperately to call out to him, but he couldn’t. His entire body was shut down somehow. His body was almost gone but his mind was working in overdrive it seemed like. He didn’t know what was happening. How did he even survive? He remembered thinking as he fell _‘I’m glad it was me and not him.’_ and he was content with that. He screamed, sure, but that was mostly reflex. Once he couldn’t see the train anymore he closed his eyes and prepared for the inevitable. But then he hit and everything burned. His entire body was on fire. He thought his entire body was broken honestly. The pain seared through him but then started to pool in his left arm. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he knew right then that his arm was gone or at least gone enough. 

“Buck!” Steve’s voice was getting closer now. Bucky tried his hardest to get something, anything, out of his mouth. All he managed was a soft, low groan. 

* * *

“Bucky! Oh God! Bucky!” Bucky’s eyes were blinking slowly. Steve ran over to him, almost falling down when he saw just how broken he looked. He knelt beside him and went to touch his face, but he held back. He was so broken looking, Steve was afraid that if he touched him, he would cause him to crumble beneath him. 

Steve hadn’t thought what he would do if he found Bucky like this. There was no way he was moving him. He could have so many broken bones that moving him could kill him. Then he saw Bucky’s left arm, or what was left of it, and knew he’d have to put pressure on it. He quickly took his uniform off and stripped himself of the shirt that he kept hidden under the Cap suit. The winds bit at his exposed skin but he ignored it. He slipped back into his Cap suit then managed to make a makeshift truncate out of his shirt and keep as much pressure on it as he could without snapping Bucky in half. Steve still wasn’t exactly sure how Bucky was even alive but he wasn’t going to question it. He was just happy that he hadn’t lost Bucky. 

“I’m going to get you help, Buck. Okay? You’re going to be fine. I promise.” Bucky let out another moan. Steve’s face was covered in frost bite but Bucky could see tears streaming down his face. With all his strength, Bucky lifted his right hand or at least managed to move it a little. Steve luckily saw it and gently reached for it, holding it lightly. “I am going to do everything to get you back home Buck. Back to Brooklyn in our apartment and we’ll go to the diner down the street and order those milkshakes you love so much but never finish because you always get mad at the brain freezes you get. And then we’ll go to a Yankees game like we used to as kids. And Central Park where we’ll finally get to play a game of catch where I don’t end up having an asthma attack.” Steve was pushing through the tears the best he could. He wanted to believe that all of that was true. But how could it be? Who was going to save them now? 

“Steve,” Bucky forced out. It was so strained that Steve thought that maybe he actually hadn’t said it and Steve just thought he heard it because that’s what he wanted to hear. 

“I’m right here Buck. I’m right here, not going anywhere. Couldn’t make me if you tired.” The tears were streaming down his face, almost freezing instantly as they hit his cheeks. He was so worried that he was losing Bucky. He had found him but he hadn’t saved him yet. He had to save him. He had to. 

* * *

 

The next few minutes happened in a blur. He heard a twig snapping but assumed it was just an animal. He couldn’t afford to take the pressure off of Bucky’s arm. He was also busy trying to figure out how to get them out of the gorge before they both froze. But he should have investigated the twig because one minute the only thing he was worried about was Bucky and the next he was being shot at and had to worry about surviving for the both of them. 

He did his best to cover Bucky who had passed out. He shielded Bucky’s body with his own, up until someone came up to him, gun to his head, and forced him off Bucky. The man was shouting in German, but when a gun is pointed at your head you kind of get the message to move. He thought about fighting back, he could probably take them, but in the back of his mind the question _‘what about Bucky?’_ kept popping up. Because, sure, he could take on all these men, but what would stop one of them from shooting Bucky while Steve took out the rest? So Steve surrendered. He put his hands up and surrendered. 

The man who had his gun to Steve pointed at two men with some of Hydra’s weapons and they moved over to Bucky. Steve tensed. If they were going to hurt Bucky, they’d have to kill Steve first because he would never let that happen. The man shouted at them in German so Steve had no idea what was going on. But then the two men placed their weapons in holsters and proceeded to drag Bucky away. Steve went to move toward Bucky but he felt the muzzle of the gun hit his neck and he knew that if he attempted to get any closer he’d be shot dead before he got to help Bucky. He gritted his teeth and watched as Hydra took Bucky away from him. 

The gun stayed on him until Bucky was out of sight. The man with the gun moved from behind him and stood in front of him. He brought the gun to Steve’s head and placed it on his forehead. He thought for sure that he was about to be shot, so he decided that asking one last question would be allowed.

“Why him?” His voice caught in his throat. Because he had to know. Why did they take Bucky instead of him? What were they planning on doing to Bucky? He wanted to ask but then the gun was pressed into his forehead and the man clicked the safety off. He closed his eyes, expecting that to be the last moments. His last moments were going to be worrying about Bucky. Honestly he never expected anything else. But instead, the man then removed the gun, put the safety back on, and placed it into his holster. He had a devilish grin on his face.

“Hail Hydra,” was all the man said. His words burned in Steve's ears. He hated those words. He started to walk away, towards where they had dragged Bucky away. He followed the trail of blood that Bucky’s arm had left. As soon as he turned his back, Steve set into action. He dove for his shield and threw it at the man. It hit him in the back. He went down, hard. Steve ran to him and took his gun from him. Steve tossed the gun aside. 

“Where are you taking him?” Steve shouted. He had the man's uniform clutched in his fists. He shook his body, hoping to get something, anything, out of him. But like the other Hydra agent Steve had run into, the man just popped one of his teeth out and bit down on a cyanide pill. The man's mouth foamed as he spit out one last _'Hail Hydra'_ before dying. Steve threw his body on the ground and started running again. He didn’t have time to shout at the corpse, take out his frustrations a little, he had to keep following the blood. His legs were numb, his entire body was numb actually, but he kept going. Find Bucky. Find Bucky and save him. He promised he would save him and he never broke promises. 

Steve didn't get much farther before the trail ran out. When the blood stopped, three sets of tire tracks started, all going in different directions. Buck was in the back of some Hydra truck on his way to God knows where. And there was nothing Steve could do about that. Steve had lost him. He lost him again and he wasn’t sure if he would ever get him back. 

He fell to his knees and wept. 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
